MAMMOTH JOURNEY!

It all began on Wednesday morning, that dreadful; raining, miserable day was the start of a LONG journey of cars, busses, trains and planes.
A journey from Devon (England) to Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) that should have only taken 7 hours on a direct flight soon turned into a 3 day trek across three different countries. I left Ilfracombe Wednesday morning and drove 2 hours to Bristol where I had to wait 40minutes for my train to London. Upon arriving in London I stayed one night then caught the last train to the airport at 8pm, despite the fact that the check-in time for my flight was not until 5am the following morning. I arrived at the airport at 10pm and found a cozy* place to sleep.

(*a COLD hard and unforgiving tile floor with the constant airport PA system reminding me “do not leave you baggage unattended or it will be confiscated by the authorities” )


5 am came and went and by 7am I was on the Ryanair flight from London Stansted to Frankfurt Hann. 90minutes later I arrived in Frankfurt only to find out there was a 2 hour bus ride to get to Frankfurt International Airport. Not to mention the bus had been delayed an hour and to add to the pleasant mood of 200 angry passengers it started bucketing down rain.

I arrived at Frankfurt International at lunch time but my connecting flight to Cairo was not scheduled to depart till 1030pm that night. So after another 10hours of sitting at an airport I boarded my 4 hour flight to Cairo.

Arriving and clearing customs at 330am I now had had to navigate my way from the airport to the bus station in a country where no one speaks English especially the taxi drivers! I arrived at the bus station an hour later and $20 poorer only to be swarmed with a load of Arab taxi drivers telling me that all the busses to Sharm were booked out and instead offering to take me to another bus station -where they assured me there were available tickets- for yet another $20. However after literally 40minutes of haggling they gave up and allowed me to buy a ticket at that station. And even so, once I had brought it they had the audacity to ask me for a tip saying ‘we help you!’ chea bullshit they did. GRRRRRR

Turns out I paid more for the taxi from the airport to the bus station that I paid for my bus ticket from Cairo to Sharm (a 7 hour journey!)

Now I’ve been in a few awkward situations this year but none were as awkward as being the only white person sitting confined on a bus while everyone stares at you and speaks in Arabic.

So after 3 hours in a car, 10 hours on busses, 7 hours on trains, 5.5 hours on planes and 28 hours sitting in an airport I have finally arrived in Sharm El Shiek.

It’s now Saturday night (9th Aug) and I’ve arrived at my hotel, desperate for a good feed and some serious sleep..... DREAM ON!!!! My open water PADI diving course starts tomorrow morning at 8am which means a 7am rise. But the hotel is ACE for only $23 a night I get bed and breakfast with an air-con room and a decent swimming pool. However they are booked out for the rest of the week which leaves me bedless...


Having said all that I look forward to catching up with my big sis Amy O’Connor and meeting the lovely Cara Cioni, this is going to be a week to remember!

Let the diving begin!